


unexpected displays of affection

by candleoreo



Category: Soul Eater
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-25
Updated: 2016-07-25
Packaged: 2018-07-26 13:50:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7576375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/candleoreo/pseuds/candleoreo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Liz notices that something is going on between Kid and Maka, and tries her best to help them along.</p>
            </blockquote>





	unexpected displays of affection

**Author's Note:**

> i havent thought about soul eater for a pretty long time, so i apologise completely if there are inaccuracies or whatever. just assume this is a kind-of AU set after kid becomes a full shinigami.
> 
> i only came back for this ki/ma ship because they are too cute

 

“Is it just me, or have Kid and Maka been acting kind of weird lately?”

Liz watches the retreating backs of the two aforementioned meisters as they head off to the library to do some “extra research”, in their exact words. She carefully observes  the distance between them--perhaps a few inches closer than usual. Kid gestures to the pile of books in Maka’s arms, probably offering to carry some of the load like the gentleman he is.

Hmm. Suspicious.

“Yeah! Who even does extra studying?!” Patty pipes up.

“Those two nerds would. But that’s not what I meant, Patty. Don’t you think Kid and Maka have been going off on their own a lot more recently?”

“Huh, I guess so. They have coffee together every morning at Deathbucks café!”

Liz whirled her head around so fast her hair whipped against her cheek. “Wait.. what?! Why didn’t you tell me earlier?! How do you even know?”

Patty shrugged, grinning cheerfully.

  


“That looks hard to carry. May I help?” Kid points at the books she held, stacked neatly all the way from stomach level to the bottom of her chin.

“Oh thanks, Kid. You can take half the stack.”

The both of them pause for a moment to carry out their transfer of books. Once they are done, they begin walking again, their echoing footsteps the only sounds in the empty hallway. Kid watches Maka in mild fascination as they walk by each window and the light passes across her face. In that split second she flashes gold, a reflection of sunlight off ash blonde hair.

Maka takes a moment to enjoy the comfortable silence. Having Kid around always made her soul feel at peace.

“Are you returning all of them? Why do you have this many?” Kid asks.

“Yes,” she grins cheekily. “I accidentally checked out too many books again.”

Kid chuckles lightly. “That does sound like something you would do. I see you’ve been reading...” he glances down at the book at the top of his stack. “Much Ado About Nothing? I didn’t know you liked Shakespeare.” He raises his eyebrow inquisitively at her.

“I’ve been trying to branch out into different types of literature recently. I thought I might try reading some of Shakespeare’s works.”

“I usually find Shakespeare more enjoyable when I have someone to discuss it with. Tomorrow morning, over coffee, like usual?”

Maka nods, unable to stop the smile spreading across her face. The thought of spending more time with Kid made her stomach a little trembly with excitement.

“Yeah, tomorrow. I promised to help you study up on soul perception today, after all.”

 

* * *

 

At 7am in the morning, it is early enough that even the Sun is barely over the horizon, half-open eyes blinking groggily at the city below. Soft light through windowpane illuminates the figures of two familiar meisters seated in a cafe. Across the street, three girls crouch behind a row of bushes.

“Um… what are we doing?”

“Shh, Tsubaki. We’re spying on them! We need to be stealthy.”

Tsubaki lowers her already soft voice to a ghost of a whisper. “Why do you need to bring me along? What are we spying on them for?”

“We haven’t had some girltime in a while, so I called you over to join me and Patty. And because something’s up with Kid and Maka lately. Does that look like a date to you? That totally looks like a date!”

“Kid and Ma-ka sit-ting in a tree~” Patty starts chanting in a loud whisper.

Tsubaki glances doubtfully at the blurry outlines of Kid and Maka through the cafe window. “Couldn’t you just… ask them if they’re dating?”

“...Obviously not!”

“It doesn’t seem like something they’d be hiding. I mean, they _are_ out in public.”

“Shh! Shush, you.”

Tsubaki looks over the two sisters with a fond smile. They seemed to be really into their roles as covert spies. She doesn’t see the harm in joining in. Nothing much interesting has happened in a while, anyway.

Liz throws her hands up. “This is hopeless! We can’t see anything through the reflections on the windows!”

“Ooh, you know what this means, Sis!”

“We have to go undercover.”

Tsubaki sighs. It’s going to be a long day.

 

* * *

 

“Psst, Liz.”

“What?” she hisses, turning to Soul on her right. It better be important. The girl in the movie just left to go back to her country forever, but there was a guy and they were in love and it’s very sad. Liz had to hold back her tears. (She is very glad that it was her turn to pick something for movie night Friday.)

“What’s up with Maka and Kid? Have they always been like that?” Soul asks her, eyeing their two friends curiously.

Liz glances at the pair of meisters that she had been observing closely for the past few days. Maka is sitting on the couch on the other side of Soul, staring at the TV with mild interest. Kid, on the other hand, is positioned in front of the couch near Maka, cross-legged on the floor, head leaning rested against the side of her leg.

Maka has her hand stretched out, fingers buried in Kid’s dark hair, stroking softly, as if he’s a cat.

 _Kid would hate having his hair messed up_ , Liz thinks absentmindedly. However he doesn’t seem too bothered by it; he blinks drowsily at the movie playing on the screen, probably exhausted from a day full of shinigami duties, his head practically on Maka’s lap. If Kid’s a cat he’d be purring.

They are undeniably cute.

Liz decides that she is going to do everything in her power to get them together. But for now, she has to finish this movie.

“Tell you everything later,” she says to Soul.  


 

Ring, the shrill sound of the telephone.

“Hello?”

“You said you’d tell me everything later. Now’s later. What’s up with Maka and Kid?”

“Wow, not even gonna bother with a ‘Hello Liz’? Geez. Okay, so they definitely _like_ each other, in the romantic way, but I don’t think they’re together. Yet.”

“Wait what? Kid and Maka?”

“Yes. Aren’t you listening? Anyway, I stalked them on their date, but I don’t think it was _actually_ a date, because nothing happened and they just talked about books. It was super boring. Like, geez, somebody make a move already.”

“...You stalked them on their date?”

“...I do what I have to. The other day I also asked Kid if he loves Maka, and he got so flustered. I’ve never seen him blush like that before! Wait, is Maka with you right now?”

“She’s in her room.”

“Go and ask her if she has feelings for Kid. Right now. I need to confirm something.”

“Sure, got it.”

A clatter is heard, and there is silence for a short while.

“She said she does. She got all embarrassed about it, it was hilarious. Although she admitted it pretty easily. I thought it would be harder.”

“Yes! Good job, Soul. This makes things a lot easier for me.”

A snicker is heard. “I’m assuming you already have a plan to get them together?”

“Yes, and you’re going to help me with it.”

“Shit.”

 

* * *

 

Kid has to admit, Liz and Patty do have some good ideas, occasionally.

They dragged him out of Shibusen, claiming that “all you do is work nowadays, get out and spend more time with us!”. He half-heartedly followed them, a slight scowl on his face, because they pounced on him before he could gather and rearrange the papers on his desk in a neat, symmetrical way.

All worries about the clutter he left behind are put aside when they step into the forest clearing that the Shibusen students use as an unofficial training grounds. Maka stands in the middle of the clearing in her usual school attire, Soul in weapon form swung confidently across her back, in a way that makes Kid nostalgic for the earlier years they’d spent in school.

“So, they dragged you here too, huh?” Maka asks. She grins at him, blindingly, and his heart does a little skip.

“Yes, it appears that I don’t get out enough. But it’s always good to see you, Maka,” Kid expresses earnestly.

“Likewise.”

Liz rolls her eyes, an action unnoticed by the both of them.

“Liz, Patty, what have you brought me here for?” Kid asks, now curious.

“To spar, of course! With Maka! We haven’t done that in foreverrr,” Patty pouts, lightly shaking Kid in a side-to-side motion.

“Yeah, Kid, you need to let out some steam. You can’t stay cooped up in that office forever,” Liz tells him.

Kid feels a small twinge of guilt. Thinking back on it, he supposes he hasn’t been spending as much time with his weapons as of late. Kid looks down at Patty shaking his arm, then up at Liz, who has an eyebrow raised at him.

“I suppose a light sparring practice wouldn’t hurt,” he smiles at them, holding his hands outward as an indication for them to change into their weapon forms.

It was comforting to feel the familiar shapes of the twin pistols in his hands again.

“So,” he turns to Maka. “Shall we get started?”

She nods, bringing Soul around into a defensive stance, green eyes trained on him in quiet anticipation. “Ready when you’re ready.”

  


After a few rounds of scythe swinging and bullet firing, Kid tries to make conversation with his sparring partner.

“So have you finished _Hamlet_ yet?” he asks, dodging the wickedly sharp scythe with ease. He fires a few rounds.

“Oh! Yeah I have,” Maka replies, casually swinging the blade around to deflect the bullets headed towards her face. “It was an interesting perspective on madness.”

“How so? And, did you like it? I thought you would find it a good read” Kid asks, ducking as he easily avoids Maka’s attack.

Maka immediately brings the scythe around again. “It made me realise how differently we see it, as if Madness is this thing that’s alive,” she tells Kid, leaping forwards to gain more ground, in an almost relaxed manner, raising Soul into an offensive position. “I think, in the end, Hamlet was affected by madness after all.”

“You guys aren’t sparring very seriously at all, are you?” Soul remarks dryly. His reflection appears in the blade of the scythe, lips quirked up at the corners, seemingly amused.

“It _is_ kind of just a casual session,” Maka glances at him, sheepish. She turns to Kid. “And yeah, I did like the play. Thanks for recommending it. I wouldn’t know where to start, otherwise.”

“Anytime, Maka.” They grin at each other.

At this point Liz, followed by Patty, jumps out of her weapon form, turning to the two meisters with a twitchy sort of smile. “All right, let’s take a break, you nerds. I’ve had _more_ than enough of this Shakespeare talk.” She stretches out her limbs, faking a yawn.

“This was nice,” Kid says, stretching out his fingers. “I haven’t moved around like that in a while. It felt good.”

Soul morphs back into his own human form as well, feet landing solidly on the ground. “Good to spar with you again. You’ve been busy lately,” he tells Kid, grinning his shark tooth grin.

“Yeah, I mean, whenever you’re not working, you’re off _spending time with Maka_ ,” Liz calls out loudly, with a pointed look directed at Kid. He gives her an odd look, tilting his head a little, and it makes her want to slap her hand to her face.

“We could call Black Star over to spar next time,” Maka shrugs. “It would probably be way more intense than what we just did though.”

“It’s lunchtime, we can call him over now! Let’s go eat together somewhere!” Patty suggests, bouncing lightly on her feet in excitement. “Kid, can we have pancakes? I want pancakes.”

“For lunch? No.”

Soul holds up a placating hand. “It’s cool. I know this pizza place nearby.”

  


The three weapons start walking off, chatting amongst themselves, leaving Maka and Kid to trail behind them slowly. The two walk side by side, close enough that their shoulders brush, and their pinkies touch.

Maka closes the distance and slips her hand into his, intertwining their fingers for a moment before letting them go. She winks at Kid, expression playful. “Somehow, I don’t think they’ve figured it out yet. That we’re already together.”

“Let’s see how long they take, shall we?” Kid replies, equally amused. They haven’t had this much fun in a while. He bumps his shoulder gently against her side. She softly nudges him back.

A warm feeling effuses in Kid’s chest. Quiet contentment settles itself into a place deep within his soul. It is a good day.

He silently thanks his two weapons for dragging him out. Perhaps he did need to take some time off from his duties.

He glances at the girl beside him.

“So, what do you think about sonnets?”

 

* * *

 

Tap, tap, tap.

Taptap, taptap, taptap, taptap. Eight times.

Maka looks up from her book, perturbed.

“Kid, what are you doing?”

He flinches. “Er, nothing. Sorry about that.”

Kid glances around the room, shivers, then shakes his head as if to rid himself of his thoughts. Maka watches as he instead concentrates his gaze on the cup of tea on the coffee table in front of him. (Placed perfectly in the middle for symmetrical reasons.) He has his book open in his lap, but he still seems to be on the first page.

“Kid, really, what’s bothering you?”

“Sorry, it’s just, your living room is so asymmetrical! It’s hard to ignore. Why are most of the books only on the left side of that shelf?”

Oh, his symmetry OCD is acting up again. He would be twitchy the rest of their time spent here if she doesn’t let him get up and fix the living room. Which is a bad idea, because he would take forever doing it. Unless...

“Do my pigtails for me.”

Kid blinks at her. “...But your pigtails are sym–”

Maka reaches up and tugs loose the hair on the left side of her head. “There.”

She looks up at Kid’s expression of mild horror and almost laughs.

“Why would you do that?” he asks her in bewilderment. “They were perfect the way they were before!”

“Well, look at it this way. if you’re working on fixing my pigtails then it’s easier to ignore the bookshelf, right?” Maka reasons, tugging free the remainder of her hair.

She hands the hair ties over to Kid, and watches as his lips slowly curve up into the sweetest smile. He leans over to place a kiss on her cheek. “Thank you,” he says, grabbing the hair ties from her. “You always know what to say.”

“Uh, no problem…” Maka mumbles, face flushed pink.

Kid grins, and presses another kiss onto her other cheek. For symmetry, of course.

  


Soul lays on his bed, staring up at the ceiling, hands behind his head. Headphones blast music into his ears. He has to go over to Black Star’s soon; they were due for a video game session. 

Maka is in the living room with Kid at the moment, doing whatever it is they do. “I’m inviting Kid over later,” she’d said in the early afternoon, with a slight warning look shot at Soul in case he decided to tease her about it. (He did. Only a little.)

When Kid arrived, Soul didn’t hang around to find out what they were up to; he just gave the shinigami a greeting nod and a friendly wave, and retreated to his room. He figured they would want some time alone. Besides, he’s too cool to be nosy about their little bookworm dates.

Soul stretches his arms above his head and sits up. He’s kinda hungry. Maybe he’ll go grab a sandwich from the kitchen before he leaves.

He shuffles out of the doorway and glances into the living room, only to be greeted by the sight of a rather cozy scene:

Maka, leaning back on the armchair, open book in her hand. Kid, standing behind her, gently carding his fingers through her ash blonde hair. Gathering them into pigtails. Hair ties wrapped around his fingers. They both seem fixated on their task at hand, serene expressions on their faces.

The evening sun filters in through the window behind them.

The two weren’t doing anything out of the ordinary, but Soul felt like he was intruding anyway. _They seem happy_ , he thinks to himself, and gets the weird urge to smile all of a sudden. He wonders when he got so sappy.

Soul sneaks past them and, quietly as he can, closes the front door behind him. Forget the sandwich. Black Star probably has food at his place.

 

* * *

 

Kid and Maka climb up the seemingly endless steps in front of Shibusen, having decided to walk to school together after having their daily morning coffee. It is early enough that there are only a few people around.

“Do you ever think that we don’t act enough like a couple sometimes?” Maka wonders out loud. Kid gives her a curious look.

“Hmm, not really. Do you want to?”

She thinks for a while, and shakes her head. “No, I like how we are now.”

When they arrive at the top, Kid sits down on the highest step and invites Maka to join him. The steps are wide enough that they wouldn’t be obstructing anyone’s path. They sit right in the middle so symmetry is maintained.

“What brought this on, anyway?” he asks, in reference to their earlier conversation.

“Well, we don’t really hold hands in public like most couples do. And our friends haven’t even noticed that we’re dating yet. I guess I was just a little worried that it might be a bad thing.”

“Maka, I don’t think there’s really a right way to do this. We don’t do much… PDA… but that’s just the way we work together. I’m happy even if we spend our dates just talking. I’ve liked learning more about you this past month.”

He offers Maka a smile, which she returns. “I like learning more about you too, Kid.”

“We have lots of time to figure us out. And we’ll do it together, don’t worry.” Kid gathers both of her hands into his, taking his time to remove her gloves carefully. Maka watches him, intrigued, as he rubs his thumbs gently across the bumps of her knuckles. “Also, you can do anything you want to me, Maka. I don’t mind,” he says, raising her hands to his lips, kissing the back of her left hand, right hand, maintaining eye contact the entire time. As if to prove a point.

There is a pause for a moment. Then Kid breaks out into a grin, releasing her hands from his hold.

“Was that enough PDA for you?” he teases.

“Wh-what _was_ that?” Maka has her eyebrows raised disbelievingly. “Where did that come from?” Somehow, the public setting makes it more embarrassing. Kid breathes out a few quiet chuckles.

“Your face is red.”

“Yours is too!”

“I’m not used to doing this sort of thing.”

“Me neither.”

“I meant what I said. But in all honesty, it doesn’t seem like we can handle too much PDA,” Kid says, gesturing to their blushing faces. “So I think it’s best we give some sort of warning before doing anything too intense.”

“That’s probably a good idea.” Maka exhales slowly, trying to cool herself down. “Hey, Kid, can I kiss you?”

Kid blinks in shock at her for a moment, before quickly regaining his composure.

“Right now? In public? How scandalous.” He shoots her a playful grin, which quickly fades into a shy twist of the mouth. Sometimes Maka is amazed at the many different types of smiles and laughter that she’d managed to pull out of the usually rather reserved shinigami. She longs to see more.

“I already told you,” he says to her, quietly. “You can do anything you want to me, Maka. I don’t mind.”

“Oh.” She blinks. “Okay.” She shuffles closer to Kid. Somehow, the anticipation makes the action harder to execute. But Maka is never one to shy away from doing difficult things.

She leans towards him. Their foreheads are almost touching.

 _His eyes are really pretty_ , she thinks absently, angling her head so that—

  


“GET A ROOM, YOU LOVEBIRDS!”

Black Star’s booming laughter echoes in the background as Maka and Kid immediately spring apart, blushing furiously. Tsubaki hurries up to them, apologising for her partner’s behaviour before turning to him in an attempt to quiet him down.

“Giving everyone a show at the entrance of the school? Didn’t think you guys had it in ya,” drawls Soul, with a smirk on his face that seems like it’s going to be permanent. Maka has a feeling she’d never live this down.

Their friends are climbing up the steps of Shibusen, close enough to have seen most of what was going on. Liz and Patty jump up and down excitedly.

“I’m so glad you finally got your shit together!” Liz exclaims. Oh, right. They still didn’t know.

“We should probably tell them,” Kid says, turning to Maka with a small smirk on his face.

“Tell me what?” Liz narrows her eyes.

“That we’ve been dating for about a month now,” Maka states, matter-of-factly, cutting no corners.

“Excuse me?” Liz says, in a slightly offended manner. (How dare they put her matchmaking skills to waste!)

“A couple of weeks ago you told me to ‘go have fun on my date’, so I thought you’d figured it out on your own. Therefore I didn’t see a need to tell you officially. I apologise for that,” Kid explains, pulling out his best expression of innocence. “Evidently, it was just an offhand comment.”

“We kind of realised you still didn’t know about it when you stalked us at Deathbucks,” a straight-faced Maka added. “Your disguises weren’t very convincing. Have you forgotten that both of us have soul perception?”

“Kiiiid,” Patty whined. “Why didn’t you tell us!”

“We meant to tell you guys after a while, but it just never came up,” Maka shrugged. “And then, it got pretty amusing to watch Liz try to perform her matchmaking on us.”

“Are you angry?” Kid peeks up at Liz from under his eyelashes. It wasn’t as effective as it would’ve been if Patty did it, but it still worked, because Liz crossed her arms, and said

“No, but you owe me the right to shopping trip privileges.”

Kid retrieves his personal credit card and hands it over to Liz. “Done. Have fun. Return it back to me tomorrow.”

“Awesome! You two sit there and continue whatever you were doing,” Liz waves them off, attention now focused on the credit card, daydreaming about her upcoming shopping trip. “The rest of us will just head over to class early.”

As the group shuffles into the building, Maka and Kid stand up, dusting themselves off. “I should probably head off, too. It’s almost time for class,” she issues him a parting wave.

“Don’t overwork yourself,” she tells him sternly.

Kid nods.

“Maka,” he calls out, grabbing her hand. She turns around.

Kid swiftly dives in, kissing her softly. “Have a nice day at school,” he murmurs against her lips. He then promptly dashes off to the Death Room, leaving her staring after him in shock, touching her fingers to her lips.

“Death the Kid!” Maka yells after him. “I thought we agreed to give some sort of warning!”

**Author's Note:**

> tell me if i did okay


End file.
